Links to Stuff I Like
I have a very limited list of sites I link to on my site. I actually have been thoughtful about it. I imagine I shouldn’t invest that much energy and most likely should have more links … but … well … this is the way my pea like brain works.
Here are the links I have and why:
In short why I love this site … irreverent brilliant short attention span thoughts.
I have never met Hugh Macleod (but I would imagine he would be hysterically funny in an “over a beer or two” conversation. And be sure if you have a drink with him that you steal all his cocktail napkins if he was doodling).
Why I really like gapingvoid.
I tend to ramble. Hugh tends to focus.
I have a short attention span. His thoughts are perfect for me.
And he says some really smart things. And in a way that makes you sometimes scratch your head. And sometimes laugh (while crying inside having lived through a version of it). If you haven’t visited gapingvoid, now is the time to do so.
I will give you the opportunity to link thru my site to gapingvoid.com as long as he doesn’t send me a cease and desist cocktail napkin cartoon (which would either have a mushroom cloud or guillotine on it as a visual I assume).
I aspire to his brevity in brilliance. But, alas, at my age I believe I am doomed to ramble. So I will live brevity vicariously through him.
First. Patrick is a great writer. So unlike me he tends to be grammatically correct, stay in proper tense and be funny and interesting.
Second. He has kind of a warped perspective on things which creates a pretty cool irreverence on a variety of topics. And that makes good reading.
Third. When I was a young buck and Patrick was a slightly older young buck we both worked at an ad agency which, for one of those unplanned coincidental moments in time, happened to gather an incredible group of extremely talented people at all levels. While many of us didn’t stay (sometimes you don’t see how great it is when you are in it) and went on to doing great things elsewhere, it was a really lucky time in my career to be surrounded by people of the kind of talent Patrick has.
Fourth. He’s funny.
storypeople.com is an awesome site. You can see the work and order sculptures, prints and books (all of which are also awesome). So what is storypeople all about? A guy named Brian Andreas. He is the creative talent behind the whole gig. Life lessons can be found throughout his work.
Once again, similar to Hugh Macleod it is all about brevity. All summarizing little snapshots into moments in life. He has kids (and not knowing him I could only imagine he is a great frickin’ father) and many of his vignettes are skewed toward kids but, hey, aren’t we all still kids at heart.
While he has been doing his thing for a number of years I didn’t discover his work until 2000 or so. An amazing young woman in my life at the time gave me a print (She kept asking if the stories were true. I kept asking her if it mattered. We finally gave up. She was looking for a place to stand & I wanted a place to fly.).
And while his work kind of became our relationship “thing” (I gave her the Kindred Spirits sculpture which kind of put a beginning stamp on a great 6 months relationship ‘run’) his work has remained integral in my life even though the relationship dissolved.
I can almost guarantee if you spend enough time with his work you will find at least one idea that will resonate so strongly with you that you will share it (if not buy it).
Storypeople.com will remain as one of my most preferred links until Brian sends me a nice thought kindly suggesting the link be removed.
When I got into the advertising/marketing business it just didn’t seem like we had as much of the bullshit mumbo jumbo the industry has these days (hey. remember. perception is reality). adcontrarian.com gave me a place to go and read someone articulating thoughts I had (but much better than I ever could).
Bob Hoffman has a nice way of cutting thru all the BS and reminding us the ad business is fairly simple at its core. Simply, if your philosophy ain’t about creatively communicating ideas simply to gain a result, you are probably up the shit creek without a paddle. All the process in the world and ‘unique’ philosophies and attitudes really just get in the way of “do you do this well or not”. And, frankly, the people who do this really well aren’t unique from each other excepting the fact they are different people. Good is good.
Bob strips things down and he calls himself curmudgeonly (and he may be. I have never met him) but if his tone bothers you ignore it and pay attention to the thought behind what he writes. It will be worth your time.
I subscribed to trendwatching.com for two straight years at my last company. We wasted the opportunity to appropriately use the information as a company but I personally used the information throughout client and company experience all the time.
Incredibly interesting, forward-thinking consumer trend information that is delivered in interesting sound bite fashion. While I highly recommend buying the full report if you use this kind of stuff, I even more highly recommend watching for their free stuff (old and new). It makes for great thought fodder on general issues and they are very good at spotting interesting things that are happening globally. (And what they call their trends is worth the visit alone).
There you go.
Enjoy. I like sharing things from people and paces significantly smarter than I.